"All Shapes and Sizes: A Workshop on Novel Structure" with Chantel Acevedo

“Making Their Stories Your Own” with Rebecca McClanahan

“First Impressions in the First Few Pages” with Sarah Creech

“The Mirror Exercise: Producing a Whole Short Work in Less Than an Hour” with Zelda Lockhart

The Master Classes will be closed to on-site registration as well. But plenty of excellent options remain in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry.

From Saturday’s “Brilliant at Breakfast” panel discussion titled “Words in Civic Life” to Sunday’s panel discussion “Creating a Poetry Community,” the 2014 Fall Conference offers ample opportunities for writers of all levels of skill and experience to build their own communities and support networks and, of course, have fun. The inimitable Wilton Barnhardt, author—most recently—of the novel Lookaway, Lookaway, will speak during the Network Banquet on Saturday night and lead a fiction workshop.

Registrants looking to learn more about how the publishing industry works can look forward to the “The Art of the Pitch,” led by Carin Siegfried and Betsy Thorpe. Priscilla Goudreau-Santos will lead a Business of Writing Workshop, while Kim Boykin, John Hartness, and Karon Luddy will sit on a panel titled “The Many Paths to Publication.” The veritable smorgasbord of class offerings doesn’t stop there: Amy Rogers will teach “Food Writing,” and Zelda Lockhart will lead the all-genre "The Mirror Exercise: Producing a Whole Short Work in Less Than an Hour." Scott Owens and Jonathan K. Rice, both hosts of long-running monthly open mic events, will discuss “How to Build a Poetry Community.”

Structure: It's hard to talk about and therefore many writers avoid the scary subject, even though a sound structure is essential to the success of any novel. On this panel, four writers will share their own unique ways of building a book, from being a “pantser” (who flies by the seat of her pants) to a “plotter” who won't begin without a detailed outline, to all the possibilities between these two extremes. We'll also discuss the issues of whether each book demands its own structure, the challenge of revision, writing when you aren't sure what happens next, and whether or not the "film formula" really works when it comes to novels. You'll leave with a new set of tools to help you find the best structural approach to your next book.

Erika Marks is a native New Englander who now makes her home in Charlotte with her husband and two children. On the winding road to publishing, she has worked as an illustrator, an art director, a cake decorator, and a carpenter--but writing has always been her greatest passion. She is the author of The Guest House, The Mermaid Collector, Little Gale Gumbo, and It Comes in Waves, all published by NAL/Penguin. Her love of the sea keeps her stories tied to the shore, as well as her love for stories of the heart. You can reach her directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

If you could switch places with one fictional character, who would it be?Holy cow—how to pick just one? At the top would have to be Claudia from The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Franiweiler. She gets to live at the Met Museum, for goodness’ sake! I always envied her that adventure.

What do you hope attendees takeaway from Fall Conference, especially if they sign up for your workshop, panel, or Mart?That they have a clearer sense of what kind of story-writing structure works best for them and can hit the ground running when they get home!

Sunday's "Brilliant at Breakfast" panel discussion is titled, "The Many Paths to Publication." What's the first thing you ever published? My first novel, Little Gale Gumbo, which was released by NAL in 2011—I had been submitting manuscripts for twenty years at that point.

Give us three adjectives you hope critics use to describe your next book.Engrossing, moving, well-developed.

What is the most frustrating or rewarding part of the writing process?Most frustrating is that sense that a work is never done and knowing that one day you have to stop fussing it and simply say “It’s done” so you can move on to a new story. Most rewarding is getting to rework a story to a point where is rich and newly exciting each time you do.

What’s one piece of advice no one gave you when you were starting out, that you wish they had?That it takes time to get a story to a place where it’s ready to be read, either by editors or agents or other readers. Drafts are your friend.

If you could mandate that everyone in the world read one book, which one would you choose?Another great question—Life of Pi or The Shipping News might top that list.

Do you steal hotel pens?Yes—but I wasn’t aware that was stealing. No, really! But I take home the shampoo and soaps too because I would hate to think they get thrown away unused. (That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it.)

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The North Carolina Writers' Network runs November 21-23 at the Sheraton Charlotte Hotel, in Charlotte. On-site registration will be available.

While on-site registration will be available, registering early saves conferencegoers nearly 40 percent. What other reason do you need? Register now.

The North Carolina Writers' Network 2014 Fall Conference offers something for almost every writer, at any level of skill or experience. Your best route to getting the most out of the Network’s 2014 Fall Conference depends on where you are right now as a writer, where you want to go as a writer, and how you want to get from here to there.

Are you a novice writer? Good workshop options for newbies include Chantel Acevedo’s “All Shapes and Sizes: A Workshop on Novel Structure”; “Poetry 101” with Anthony S. Abbott; and “First Impressions in the First Few Pages” with Sarah Creech.

Are you an emerging writer? You may want to mix some of the craft workshops—maybe “Poetry and Time” with Julie Funderburk; “Making Their Stories Your Own” with Rebecca McClanahan; or Zelda Lockhart’s “The Mirror Exercise: Producing a Whole Short Work in Less Than an Hour”—with some of the appropriate business-of-writing workshops like Sunday’s panel discussion on “The Many Paths to Publication” withKim Boykin, John Hartness, and Karon Luddy.

Are you an experienced writer? You may be ready to concentrate on the “business of writing” workshops: “The Art of the Pitch” with Betsy Thorpe and Carin Siegfried; “Crafting Your Message: Beginning an Interactive Publicity Campaign” with Priscilla Goudreau-Santos; “The Many Paths to Publication” panel discussion; maybe even “Creating a Poetry Community” with Scott Owens and Jonathan K. Rice.

And if you're an author, well, why not come to the conference just to brag? And of course to enjoy the keynote address by Allan Gurganus, Saturday's luncheon featuring North Carolina's seventh poet laureate, Joseph Bathanti, and Saturday night's annual banquet featuring the inimitable Wilton Barnhardt.

Wilmington, NC--The 2015 Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition is now open for submissions, and that means contest season is officially upon us.

The Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition encourages the creation of lasting nonfiction that is outside the realm of conventional journalism and has relevance to North Carolinians. Subjects may include traditional categories such as reviews, travel articles, profiles or interviews, place/history pieces, or culture criticism.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Post family, in 2014 the North Carolina Writers' Network began offering the first-place winner $1,000, while the second and third place winners receive $300 and $200 respectively. The winning entry also will be considered for publication by Southern Cultures magazine.

The Final Judge is Jason Frye, a travel, culinary, and culture writer from Wilmington. After his first experience with North Carolina—a family vacation to the Outer Banks—he felt drawn to the state. He moved here in 2002 to attend UNC-Wilmington and pursue his Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing; after graduating in 2005, he stayed and began to explore the state through the lens of a poet, essayist, journalist, culinary critic, and travel writer.

His work has appeared in print in crazyhorse, Our State magazine, the Official North Carolina Visitor Guide, The Charlotte Observer, Raleigh News & Observer, the StarNews, AAA Go!, and others; and his monthly column on the culture and nightlife in and around Wilmington appears monthly in Salt. Online, he has written for Our State Eats, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, VisitNC.com, Forbes, and Moon.com. He has two travel guides—Moon North Carolina and Moon North Carolina Coast—in print through Avalon Travel Publishing, and a third—Moon Road Trips: Blue Ridge Parkway—will be released in spring 2015.

Chapel Hill resident Laura Herbstwon the 2014 Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition for her essay, "Breast Cancer: A Love Story." Jason Hess of Wilmington won second place for his essay “The Adopted Person,” while Chapel Hill’s Joanna Catherine Scott won third place for her essay “How I Went to Adult Prison as a Child,” based on interviews with a prisoner in Central Prison.

Rose Post worked for the Salisbury Postfor fifty-six years as a reporter, feature writer, and columnist. She won numerous state and national awards for her writing and earned the N.C. Press Women's top annual award four times. She received the O. Henry Award from the Associated Press three times, the Pete Ivey Award, and the School Bell Award for educational coverage. Nationally, she won the 1989 Ernie Pyle Award, the Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Award for human-interest writing, and the 1994 National Society of Newspaper Columnists' Award.

Here are the complete guidelines:

The competition is open to any writer who is a legal resident of North Carolina or a member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network.

The postmark deadline is January 17.

The entry fee is $10 for NCWN members, $12 for nonmembers.

Entries can be submitted in one of two ways:

Send two printed copies through the U.S. Postal Service (see guidelines and address below), along with a check for the appropriate fee, made payable to the North Carolina Writers' Network.

Each entry must be an original and previously unpublished manuscript of no more than 2,000 words, typed in a 12-point standard font (i.e., Times New Roman) and double-spaced.

Author's name should not appear on manuscripts. Instead, include a separate cover sheet with name, address, phone number, e-mail address, word count, and manuscript title. (If submitting online, do not include a cover sheet with your document; Submittable will collect and record your name and contact information.)

An entry fee must accompany the manuscript. Multiple submissions are accepted, one manuscript per entry fee: $10 for NCWN members, $12 for nonmembers.

You may pay the member entry fee if you join the NCWN with your submission. Checks should be made payable to the North Carolina Writers’ Network.

Entries will not be returned. Winners will be announced in March.

Send submission to:

North Carolina Writers' Network

ATTN: Rose Post

PO Box 21591

Winston-Salem, NC 27120

The nonprofit North Carolina Writers’ Network is the state’s oldest and largest literary arts services organization devoted to writers at all stages of development. For additional information, visit www.ncwriters.org.

Pre-registration for the North Carolina Writers' Network 2014 Fall Conference closes Friday, November 14. There, Karon Luddy will sit on the panel titled "The Many Paths to Publication" with Kim Boykin and John Hartness. Traditional or Indie, Big 5 or Small Press, Digital or Print: writers have never had more possible, viable paths to publication to choose from, which can make choosing harder than ever before. This panel discussion will feature three authors who have followed more than one of those paths, and can tell you what they discovered along the way.

Karon Luddy grew up in Lancaster, SC, and lives in Charlotte with her husband Tom. She is the author of the award-winning novel Spelldown published by Simon and Schuster and Wolf Heart, a book of poetry, published by Clemson University Press. In 2005, she received her MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University and became an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte where she teaches writing intensive classes in the American Studies Department. In 2014, Luddy's passion for writers, readers, and literature inspired her to create Backbone Books. The debut title of this new imprint, Bewilderment of Boys, was published in June. It is also the sequel to Spelldown, Luddy's first novel.

Where is your favorite place to write? For fiction, I love to write in my home office.For poetry and journal writing, I love to write sitting on the old white sofa in my living room.

If you weren't a writer, what kind of job would you like to have?Singer-songwriter.

Who has influenced your writing style the most? My younger self.

If you could switch places with one fictional character, who would it be?I have no desire to switch places with any fictional character.

What do you hope attendees takeaway from Fall Conference, especially if they sign up for your workshop, panel, or Mart? To put your best work out there and to help other writers, editors, and publishers do the same. It’s all about community and co-marketing.

Charlotte is known as both "The Queen City" and "The Hornet's Nest." Does one of those nicknames ring more true for you than the other?The Queen City because I love female monarchs and my daughter is named Charlotte.

Sunday's "Brilliant at Breakfast" panel discussion is titled, "The Many Paths to Publication." What's the first thing you ever published?My first publication was a poem titled “Graffiti on a Bathroom Wall.”

Give us three adjectives you hope critics use to describe your next book.Mind-blowing. Whimsical. Authentic.

What is the most frustrating or rewarding part of the writing process?When the poem, story, or novel itself breathes a sigh of relief that I am finished with it.

What’s one piece of advice no one gave you when you were starting out, that you wish they had? Lighten up. Take your work seriously, but not your Self.

Describe your ideal literary festival. Who would give the keynote address? Who would be the featured readers? What else?My ideal literary festival would be a Women’s Book festival run by women, with all women authors and participants held in the Southeast. The focus would be on Narrative Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction. Three Keynote Speakers: Cathy Smith Bowers, Dannye Romine Powell, and Sheri Fink. For ages 16 and up.

Do you steal hotel pens? No. I have a fetish for pens and I prefer to write with uniball Vision pens.

If you could mandate that everyone in the world read one book, which one would you choose?Return to Love by Marianne Williamson.

While on-site registration will be available, registering early saves conferencegoers nearly 40 percent. What other reason do you need? Register now.

The North Carolina Writers' Network 2014 Fall Conference offers something for almost every writer, at any level of skill or experience. Your best route to getting the most out of the Network’s 2014 Fall Conference depends on where you are right now as a writer, where you want to go as a writer, and how you want to get from here to there.

Are you a novice writer? Good workshop options for newbies include Chantel Acevedo’s “All Shapes and Sizes: A Workshop on Novel Structure”; “Poetry 101” with Anthony S. Abbott; and “First Impressions in the First Few Pages” with Sarah Creech.

Are you an emerging writer? You may want to mix some of the craft workshops—maybe “Poetry and Time” with Julie Funderburk; “Making Their Stories Your Own” with Rebecca McClanahan; or Zelda Lockhart’s “The Mirror Exercise: Producing a Whole Short Work in Less Than an Hour”—with some of the appropriate business-of-writing workshops like Sunday’s panel discussion on “The Many Paths to Publication” withKim Boykin, John Hartness, and Karon Luddy.

Are you an experienced writer? You may be ready to concentrate on the “business of writing” workshops: “The Art of the Pitch” with Betsy Thorpe and Carin Siegfried; “Crafting Your Message: Beginning an Interactive Publicity Campaign” with Priscilla Goudreau-Santos; “The Many Paths to Publication” panel discussion; maybe even “Creating a Poetry Community” with Scott Owens and Jonathan K. Rice.

And if you're an author, well, why not come to the conference just to brag? And of course to enjoy the keynote address by Allan Gurganus, Saturday's luncheon featuring North Carolina's seventh poet laureate, Joseph Bathanti, and Saturday night's annual banquet featuring the inimitable Wilton Barnhardt.

You’ve worked hard on your book and now it’s time to let people know about it. Get them talking about you with a marketing and publicity campaign that includes press releases, media interviews, social media and more. Since most authors are more comfortable writing their book than marketing it, this workshop will talk about the platforms and techniques that are critical to selling your book. Whether you’re an author with a book being released by a traditional publisher that may not have the resources for publicity, or you’re self-publishing and responsible for your own publicity, this workshop will help you lay the foundation for a successful book launch with your own efforts.

Priscilla Goudreau-Santos is a publicist and marketing specialist who specializes in promoting authors and their books. She’s a Jacksonville, Florida, native and University of Florida graduate (Go Gators!) and served as assistant public relations director for a major hospital, as marketing director for a regional commercial real estate firm, and as news reporter for The Florida Times-Union before beginning her own firm in 1996. She moved to Charlotte a year and a half ago and loves being part of the vibrant book community. She is the new WNBA-Charlotte Publicity Chair. Priscilla is also a writer. That’s what inspired her to begin her business and to work with authors. Her articles have appeared in numerous local and regional publications and one day she hopes to pen a novel.

What’s one piece of advice no one gave you when you were starting out, that you wish they had? Have patience, persistence, confidence, and curiosity–oh, that’s four.

Did you have a teacher or mentor who had a big, positive impact on you? I’ve worked with many creative, talented people. Most recently, my mentor and friend, Lynn Thompson with Thompson Writing & Editing in Jacksonville, FL, has been a wonderful motivator. She holds my feet to the fire to build the framework for a great campaign–all the details behind the glitz. And, Carin Siegfried with Carin Siegfried Editorial has been a huge help to me in Charlotte with her knowledge of the book industry and the book community. She is the new President of WNBA National and also just published her own book, An Insider’s Guide to a Career in Book Publishing.

If you could live in any literary world for the rest of your life, where would you find yourself?It would be fun and probably involve fantasy. Maybe Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum universe without all the money problems or cars blowing up. Actually, it might be more fun to be Janet Evanovich.

Many writers are solitary creatures. Coming to an event like Fall Conference can be a little intimidating, navigating the exhibit hall and ballroom events. Any advice for working the room?Relax and have fun! Also, take breaks and go outside.

Who gave the best reading or talk you've ever been to? What made it so good? Again, tough question because I like to hear others speak. There was an event at Park Road Books in Charlotte featuring a number of new authors that was excellent. About six authors talked about their books and process. Drew Perry, author of Kids These Days, was very genuine and really funny.

Any advice for attendees who sign up for the Open Mic?Breathe deeply and enjoy!

The city of Charlotte was founded on two established Native American trading routes. Now, of course, it's the 2nd biggest banking center in the country. Fall Conference will boast an exhibit hall packed with vendors. How do you approach an exhibit hall at a conference such as this? To shop, to chat, or both?Absolutely, you’ll want to browse, buy and talk with people that you know as well as meet new friends.

They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but of course most of us do. What is one—or some—of your favorite book cover(s)?The first that comes to mind is Kim Wright’s The Unexpected Waltz. The colors are vibrant and the photo of a woman in a ball gown and high heels reflects what the story is about–even down to the requisite three to four-inch heels. I also like the covers for Khaled Hosseini’s books: The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns, And the Mountains Echoed.

What do you hope attendees takeaway from the conference, especially if they sign up for your workshop, panel, or Mart?That they understand the basics of an interactive media campaign and have confidence in putting one together using all of the tools for success.

“Parents of special-needs kids will find this story particularly inspiring, and its universal message of love and acceptance should speak to a much wider audience.”—Publishers Weekly

“A poignant and candid father's memoir.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Raising a child with Down syndrome, the author had plenty of fears and preconceptions. But from babyhood to adult-hood, Sarah challenged him to accept her not as a dire diagnosis but as a beloved, inspiring daughter. This isn't a book only for those dealing with disability; it's a ferocious, illuminating look at the stunning surprise of human connection.”—People Magazine

In 1987, Paul Austin and his wife Sally were newlyweds, excited about their future together and happily anticipating the birth of their first child. He was a medical student and she was a nurse.

Everything changed the moment the doctor rushed their infant daughter from the room just after her birth, knowing instantly that something was wrong. Sarah had almond-shaped eyes, a single crease across her palm instead of three, and low-set ears all of which suggested that the baby had Down syndrome.

Beginning on the day Sarah is born and ending when she is a young adult living in a group home, Beautiful Eyes is the story of a father's journey toward acceptance of a child who is different. In a voice that is unflinchingly honest and unerringly compassionate, Austin chronicles his life with his daughter: watching her learn to walk and talk and form her own opinions, making decisions about her future, and navigating cultural assumptions and prejudices all the while confronting, with poignancy and moving candor, his own limitations as her father.

It is Sarah herself, who, in her own coming of age and her own reconciling with her difference, teaches her father to understand her. Time and again, she surprises him: performing Lady Gaga s "Poker Face" at a talent show; explaining how the word "retarded" is hurtful; reacting to the events of her life with a mixture of love, pain, and humor; and insisting on her own humanity in a world that questions it. As Sarah begins to blossom into herself, her father learns to look past his daughter s disability and see her as the spirited, warmhearted, and uniquely wise person she is."

Paul Austin, an emergency-room doctor, is the author of a previous memoir, Something for the Pain. His essays have appeared in Creative Nonfiction, the Southeast Review, and the Gettysburg Review. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.

Returning to his hometown for his best friend’s funeral is the last thing former FBI field agent John Thomas wants to do. Not only was his friend murdered, but the town itself holds dark terrors that John has spent years avoiding. Summoning all his inner strength, John arrives in town to pay his respects, not knowing he will be drawn into the intrigue and implications surrounding the murder investigation.

Family, old friends, and acquaintances complicate the situation even further. Who is involved in the murder plot? Who can John trust? The answers are not as simple as they seem.

Hoyle Purvis, who writes under the name H.V. Purvis, was born in 1952 and reared in the country between High Falls and Bennett in central North Carolina. Raised in the country, he learned to raise animals, farm, handle guns, shoot, ride horses and spent many hours daily riding the trails around his home. His talents in music lead to an Associate in Arts degree in music from Sandhills Community College, a Bachelor in Arts in music education from Pfeiffer University and a Masters in music from Appalachian State University. After college, he worked as a church music director and taught high school chorus and theatre. In 1992, he left teaching and started Purvis Appraisals, a real estate appraisal business. He has three children from his first marriage. He considers them to be three of his best friends. He and Ally, his current wife, live on a small ranch in Scotland County adjoining forty-three thousand acres of State wildlife preserve. They have eleven horses, a faithful dog, an affectionate cat, some Guinea hens and a few chickens. They ride regularly on the wildlife preserve, at the beach, and in the mountains.

"Crepe Roses, by Brenda Kay Ledford, is tithed to the deep mountains of the poet's beloved western North Carolina. This stirring collection is the plat of the heart, a litany of memory that becomes as palpable as the land itself. Indeed memory, along with the Adamic impulse to name every signpost—to list those names in sorrow and triumph, to wander among them, crying out, as if they are lost, though they remain underfoot—is this book's constant, thrumming trope. As the speaker attests in the poem, 'Ceaseless Verse,' 'The poetry of earth never ceases.' Nor does the reader's pleasure with these elegant poems." —Joseph Bathanti, former Poet Laureate of North Carolina

"Crepe Roses is a patchwork quilt of experiences and memories pieced together with the skillful words of an established poet. The multi-hued fragments give a view of the Blue Ridge Mountains where 'moments tick like hours on the wrap-around porch.' The ancient Appalachians come alive in her poems as a 'breeze ricochets across the porch resurrecting buried dreams.' A dedicated writer, her remembrances bring much to us all. Settle down and visit Chunky Gal Mountain, Winding Stairs Gap, and Cherry Mountain where a Full Wolf Moon spills honey. A delightful read!" —C. Pleasants York, President, North Carolina Poetry Society

Crepe Roses by Brenda Kay Ledford is a delightful poetry book by an author who knows the Southern Appalachian Mountains. She has preserved the rich heritage of a hardworking people through her imagery and insight to their way of life. Ledford brings us to the top of Shewbird Mountain describing the changing seasons of her native land. The Blue Ridge Mountains come alive through verse that makes the ordinary sacramental.

Brenda Kay Ledford is a native of Clay County, North Carolina, and a retired educator. She received her Master of Arts in Education from Western Carolina University. She's former editor of Tri-County Communicator at Tri-County Community College.

Ledford belongs to the North Carolina Writers' Network, North Carolina Poetry Society, and Georgia Poetry Society. She's listed with A Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers, and in The North Carolina Literary Map.

Her work has appeared in many journals including Lyricist, The Broad River Review, Pembroke Magazine, Asheville Poetry Review, Our State, and many anthologies.

Watersong/Ariadne Books (an imprint of Wild Embers Press) $14, paperback December, 2014 Poetry Available from the author (see below) or from the publisher

"This River holds our hands up to the magic in the dark moon with figurative language that pulls shards of tenderness from a world that is bloody with sting of sunlit longing and a psychic quest for redemption. These poems resurrect an ancient enchanted necklace worn by a herstorical aching that Judy Hogan bears into utterance.

“This collection is a meditation on time, memory, and the fleeting nature of life. Decoding the threads of aching and the heart of the language of two separate rivers is at the core of This River. These poems are a beautiful terrain forming the powerful backdrop for the magnificence of fragility.

“Part primordial, part philosophical, powerful story inhabiting fluid boundaries between hearts, breaking the pedestrian parameters of space, time, and sensory experiences….This River is a lesson for weaving the baskets that are needed for carrying water to the Light." —Jaki Shelton Green, author of Feeding the Light, 2014 North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame inductee

"In This River the speaker’s observations of nature are liquid with impassioned drive. The phrases in this poem are smooth flowing, and this fluency in language seems a reflection of the river where she studies and meditates. Each eddy, and bird, and leaf is clearly drawn and vital to the sense of place and self. Identities of the self and qualities of desire are pulled into her observations and transformations and move us as the river moves."—Foster Foreman, author of Soundings and Co-Editor of Hyperion Poetry Journal and Thorp Springs Press

"In This River, Judy Hogan takes paths forged by Proust and Virginia Woolf down and in to the deepest most nuanced passages of the soul. Using a great Piedmont river as matter, metaphor, and muse she shows one woman’s transcendent journey beyond vulnerability to a place of abiding grace. This River is not only beautiful poetry, but a compelling story as well."—Joanie McLean, author of Place and Up From Dust

From the preface:

“When I left Kostroma after my first Sister Cities of Durham visit in 1990, my host, Mikhail, and I had the mayor’s blessing to start exchange visits between our writers, and I had also fallen in love with this man who opened Russian culture to me and seemed my equal and my soul-mate in all the ways that mattered. I could tell that he loved me, too, but would never leave his wife and his sons. As we waited for our train back to Moscow, Mikhail said, ‘One day, Judy, we will each have a wing and we’ll fly somewhere together.’

“Perhaps it was the largest passion of my life, after my desire to write. It is the time, however, to share this whole story. May it illumine other souls as it did ours.”

This River may be ordered from Judy Hogan, PO Box 253, Moncure, NC 27559 for $15, to pick up, or $18 to be mailed. If you order two copies, it's $30 to pick up and $33 to be mailed.

Judy Hogan is a poet, a former student of Greek philosophy at UC, Berkeley (back "in the day"), was founding editor of both Hyperion Journal and Carolina Wren Press. Her early books are still available on their backlist, and on their webpages you can also find a fabulous history of Judy's work as a writer and publishing advocate...a lively reflection on the times before digital publishing, a time when women and people of color were coming into print, with support and conviction.

Working within the Durham, North Carolina writing community since the mid 1970s, Hogan is nonetheless best known for her efforts in the second wave of Feminism which brought women into the "national publishing world" during that era. Her writings and papers were recently archived at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

For Sean Gerard and his pals, their idyllic days of freedom changed the day Candy DeLane, the new girl from California, moved into Vineyard Beach. On the surface, Vineyard Beach was a quiet village in Ohio sprinkled with eccentrics, a perfect place to grow up in the sixties.

But Candy’s arrival sets off a series of events that propelled Sean and his friends into an ongoing dispute with the village’s most prominent man. When Sean uncovered the obsessions of Vineyard Beach’s leading citizen, he feared he wouldn’t be believed and puts into motion a plan to protect himself that unwittingly spiraled out of control.

Following the advice of his psychologist, police detective Sean Gerard returns to Ohio after a forty-year absence. He tracks down an elderly Catholic priest who befriended him at the time of the tragedy. Sean wants to confess to the priest, knowingly risking his freedom to finally reveal the secrets that have dogged his life.

The Caper Brothers is a fast-paced story that transports the reader back to the shores of Lake Erie in the summer of 1967 to relive the events that shattered Sean’s life.

The Caper Brothers explores how one man’s determination to tell the truth underscores his enduring character and the ultimate need for redemption.

Author Tom Tozer’s writing experience spans a wide range of news and feature assignments during a forty-year newspaper career. Tom retired in late 2013 after thirty years in numerous leadership roles at the Charlotte Observer. Tom directed and encouraged hundreds of reporters and designers in the art and craft of storytelling. He keeps his love of a good story alive now as a freelance writer and editor in Charlotte, NC. The Caper Brothers is his first novel.

Charlie Lovett first delighted readers with his New York Times bestselling debut, The Bookman’s Tale. Now, Lovett weaves another brilliantly imagined mystery, this time featuring one of English literature’s most popular and beloved authors: Jane Austen.

Book lover and Austen enthusiast Sophie Collingwood has recently taken a job at an antiquarian bookshop in London when two different customers request a copy of the same obscure book: the second edition of Little Book of Allegories by Richard Mansfield. Their queries draw Sophie into a mystery that will cast doubt on the true authorship of Pride and Prejudice—and ultimately threaten Sophie’s life.

In a dual narrative that alternates between Sophie’s quest to uncover the truth—while choosing between two suitors—and a young Jane Austen’s touching friendship with the aging cleric Richard Mansfield, Lovett weaves a romantic, suspenseful, and utterly compelling novel about love in all its forms and the joys of a life lived in books.

Charlie Lovett resides in Winston-Salem and is a writer, teacher and playwright whose plays for children have been seen in over 3,000 productions worldwide. He served for more than a decade as Writer-in-Residence at Summit School. He is a former antiquarian bookseller and has collected rare books and other materials related to Lewis Carroll for more than twenty-five years. Lovett is also the author of the critically-acclaimed The Bookman’s Tale: A Novel of Obsession, which was released in 2013 by Viking Penguin and was chosen as a Barnes & Noble Recommends selection.

"This is, by far, the best volume about a single television show that I have ever read. . . . Not only is it the most thorough and informed treatment of The Andy Griffith Show available, it also provides many insights and contexts about 1960s television in general. I think, however, that it may find its greatest audience among general readers. . . . The rabid fans—and there are many of them—would consider this required reading, but many other more casual viewers who have a warm and nostalgic relationship to the show will also find it very appealing."—Robert J. Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture and Trustee Professor, S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University

"This 194-page book, the first book about The Andy Griffith Show in over twelve years, is the most scholarly book about the show to date. It's sure to be fascinating reading for the many devoted fans of the show, and is certain to expand any fan's knowledge of and appreciation for The Andy Griffith Show and what Mayberry means to all of us. And along the way, we might even learn some things about ourselves, too. So, for anyone who enjoys thinking about and understanding more about Mayberry, a description that likely fits most readers of this newsletter as much as any other community in the world, A Cuban in Mayberry is fascinating reading, maybe even essential. You probably won’t agree with all of Professor Pérez Firmat’s observations and conclusions about TAGS, but you’re sure to enjoy the journey. Professor Gustavo Pérez Firmat, you have no worries. You should know that you are heartily welcomed as a fellow citizen of Mayberry. In other words, 'Attaboy, Gus!'"—From The E-Bullet, newsletter of The Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watchers Club

"Once I took a look at the first few paragraphs, I couldn't put the book down. By the time I finished reading it, Pérez Firmat had convinced me that Mayberry—long regarded as an icon of the rural, pastoral, and nostalgic South—is also a special location on the cultural map of Cuban America. Fans of The Andy Griffith Show—and they are legion—will be thrilled by this smart, witty, and moving book."—Jorge Olivares, Allen Family Professor of Latin American Literature, Colby College

Half a century after viewers first watched a father and son walking to the local fishing hole, whistling a simple, yet unforgettable, tune, The Andy Griffith Show remains one of the most popular sitcoms in the history of American television. Tens of millions of viewers have seen the show either in its original run, its ongoing reruns, on DVD, or on the internet. Websites devoted to the show abound, hundreds of fan clubs bring enthusiasts together, and a plethora of books and Mayberry-themed merchandise have celebrated all things Mayberry. A small cottage industry has even developed around the teachings of the show's episodes. But why does a sitcom from the 1960s set in the rural South still evoke such devotion in people today?

In A Cuban in Mayberry, acclaimed author Gustavo Pérez Firmat revisits America's hometown to discover the source of its enduring appeal. He approaches the show from a unique perspective—that of an exile who has never experienced the rootedness that Andy and his fellow Mayberrians take for granted, as folks who have never strayed from home or lived among strangers. As Pérez Firmat weaves his personal recollections of exile from Cuba with an analysis of the show, he makes a convincing case that the intimacy between person and place depicted in TAGS is the secret of its lasting relevance, even as he reveals the surprising ways in which the series also reflects the racial, generational, and political turbulence of the 1960s.

Gustavo Pérez Firmat was born in Havana, Cuba, and raised in Miami, Florida. He is best known for his memoir, Next Year in Cuba, available in Spanish as El año que viene estamos en Cuba, and for Life on the Hyphen, a study of Cuban-American culture, also available in Spanish as Vidas en vilo. His most recent book, A Cuban in Mayberry, is an affectionate and personal look at one of America’s best-loved TV shows, The Andy Griffith Show. He has also published several collections of poetry in English and Spanish—Scar Tissue, Cincuenta lecciones de exilio y desexilio, Bilingual Blues, Equivocaciones, Carolina Cuban—and a novel, Anything but Love. His books of literary and cultural criticism include The Havana Habit, Tongue Ties, The Cuban Condition, Literature and Liminality, and Idle Fictions. Newsweek included him among “100 Americans to watch for in the 21st century” and Hispanic Business Magazine selected him as one of the “100 most influential Hispanics” in the United States. He divides his time between New York City and Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

NORTH CAROLINA—“I just thought we were the most privileged group of people who ever lived,” longtime columnist Rose Post once said of her years working for the Salisbury Post. “And I pinched myself all the time that I got paid for doing what I did, because I was having such a good time.”

In this spirit, the North Carolina Writers’ Network offers the 2014 Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition. This contest encourages the creation of lasting nonfiction that is outside the realm of conventional journalism and has relevance to North Carolinians. Subjects may include traditional categories such as reviews, travel articles, profiles or interviews, place/history pieces, or culture criticism.

The first-, second-, and third-place winners of the 2014 Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition will receive $300, $200, and $100 respectively. The winning entry will be considered for publication by Southern Cultures magazine.

The final judge is Hannah Dela Cruz Abrams, whose novella The Man Who Danced with Dolls won a 2013 Whiting Writers’ Award of $50,000, one of the richest prizes in American literature. She holds an MFA (’07) from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where she now teaches in the English Department. She is the recipient of a North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship, a Rona Jaffe Writer’s Award, a Hartshook Fellowship, and a Byington Award. Born on Guam, Abrams is currently at work on her memoir, The Following Sea, about growing up on a cutter that made port throughout the South Pacific.

Greensboro writer Jennifer Bringle won top honors in the 2013 Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition for her essay “Mamaw’s House.” Jane Andrews of Raleigh won second place for her essay “Where the Heart Is,” and Helen Aitken of Swansboro won third place for her essay “The Last Wooden Boat.”

Rose Post worked for the Salisbury Post for fifty-six years as a reporter, feature writer, and columnist. She won numerous state and national awards for her writing and earned the N.C. Press Women's top annual award four times. She received the O. Henry Award from the Associated Press three times, the Pete Ivey Award, and the School Bell Award for educational coverage. Nationally, she won the 1989 Ernie Pyle Award, the Scripps Howard Foundation National Journalism Award for human-interest writing, and the 1994 National Society of Newspaper Columnists' Award.

Here are the complete guidelines:

Eligibility and Guidelines

The competition is open to any writer who is a legal resident of North Carolina or a member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network.

The postmark deadline is January 17, 2014.

The entry fee is $10 for NCWN members, $12 for nonmembers.

Entries can be submitted in one of two ways:

Send two printed copies through the U.S. Postal Service (see guidelines and address below), along with a check for the appropriate fee, made payable to the North Carolina Writers' Network.

Writers from across the state and beyond can soon submit their work to one or more of the four contests sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network.

The Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition will accept submissions between November 15 and January 17; all entries must be postmarked by January 17. The Rose Post contest encourages the creation of lasting nonfiction work that is outside the realm of conventional journalism and has relevance to North Carolinians. Subjects may include traditional categories, such as reviews, travel articles, profiles, or interviews; place/history pieces; or culture criticism.

The Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize will accept submissions between December 1 and the postmark deadline of January 30. This contest honors internationally celebrated North Carolina novelist Thomas Wolfe. The winner receives $1,000 and possible publication in The Thomas Wolfe Review.

The submission period for The Doris Betts Fiction Prize runs from January 1 to February 15. All entries must be postmarked by February 15. The Betts Prize awards the first-prize winner $250 and publication in the North Carolina Literary Review. The competition is open to any writer who is a legal resident of North Carolina or a member of the Network. North Carolina Literary Review subscribers with North Carolina connections (lives or has lived in North Carolina) are also eligible.

The Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition accepts one-poem submissions between January 15 and its March 1 postmark deadline. The contest awards the winner $200, publication in storySouth, and an invitation to read his or her poetry at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Founders Day activities. This competition is open to any writer who is a legal resident of North Carolina or a member of the Network. Read poems by the winner and three finalists in a special section of storySouth, here.

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH—The North Carolina Writers' Network will host a Pre-Conference Tailgate prior to opening registration for its 2013 Fall Conference.

Conference attendees as well as the general public are invited to join the "party" at the Bellamy Mansion in Wilmington, at 12:00 pm on Friday, November 15. The Sea Quills, regional reps for the NCWN Cape Fear Coast, will lead an hour-long writing workshop focused around writing prompts. This Pre-Conference Tailgate is intended to get the creative juices flowing and kick-off what promises to be an inspiring weekend. There will be light refreshments.

The Bellamy Mansion is located at 503 Market St., Wilmington. The Bellamy Mansion is one of North Carolina's most spectacular examples of antebellum architecture built on the eve of the Civil War by free and enslaved black artisans, for John Dillard Bellamy (1817-1896) physician, planter, and business leader; and his wife, Eliza McIlhenny Harriss (1821-1907) and their nine children. After the fall of Fort Fisher in 1865, Federal troops commandeered the house as their headquarters during the occupation of Wilmington.

Now the house is a museum that focuses on history and the design arts and offers tours, changing exhibitions and an informative look at historic preservation in action.

The Bellamy Mansion is the official sponsor of the Faculty Readings at the NCWN 2013 Fall Conference.

Conference registration opens at 5:00 pm on Friday, November 15, at the Holiday Inn Resort in Wrightsville Beach. Attendees who have pre-registered may pick up their packets then, or those interested in registering on-site can do so at that time. For more information about the NCWN 2013 Fall Conference, click here.

Emily Louise Smith directs The Publishing Laboratory at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and teaches courses on the culture and commerce of publishing. In 2009 she founded the literary imprint Lookout Books and now serves as publisher for both the press and its sister magazine, Ecotone. Under her guidance, Lookout titles have garnered accolades including the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Paterson Fiction Prize and have been named finalists for the National Book Award and The Story Prize, among others. Her poems appear in Best New Poets, the Southern Review, New South, and Smartish Pace; and her honors include fellowships from the Studios of Key West, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Hambidge, as well as a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg prize. Recently she was named Woman of Achievement in the Arts and UNCW Lecturer of the Year.

If you could have a torrid but guilt-free affair with a fictional character, who would it be?Atticus Finch.

What aspect of craft do you feel you handle especially well, or is especially important to you? This isn’t craft exactly, but in terms of publishing, I seem to have a knack for crafting the story behind a book or author and pitching it successfully. Perhaps a holdover from my brief stint in advertising, I’m good at identifying a book’s target audience, as well as niche markets. And I’m absolutely devoted to book design and believe that readers naturally associate the well-written and well-designed book.

Any memorable rejections? I try not to dwell on rejections, but there’s one acceptance I’ll never forget. The late Jeanne Leiby, editor of the Southern Review, always called writers to accept new work. I was in a meeting and couldn’t answer, but I saved her warm, generous message until my cell phone carrier eventually erased it. She’ll never know how that call buoyed me as both a poet and publisher.

Do you own an electronic reading device? I own an iPad, but I don’t read books on it.

What's one thing that bugs you more than anything else when you see it in a piece of writing? More than one exclamation point or question mark, though I could make a case for the return of the interrobang.

Do you steal pens from hotels? Hotels, restaurants, students who ask me to sign permission forms. Place a pen within six inches of my hand, and it will somehow make its way into my bag or pocket.

If you could be a different author, living or dead, who would you be?C. D. Wright, Jack Gilbert, or W. S. Merwin; though different stylistically, the way those poets see and sing the world—and their brokenness—humbles and inspires me. Theirs are the poems I return to again and again.

Do you write to discover, or do you write point-to-point (for example, from an outline)? Always to surprise myself; then I lop off everything up to that point and begin again.

What was the first thing you ever published? If I discount the hand drawn newspaper I co-edited with a coterie of neighborhood kids, it was a poem in Hobart Park, the literary journal of Davidson College.

What's one piece of advice no one gave you when you were starting out, that you wished they had? I wish someone had convinced me early on that editors aren’t writers’ adversaries, and we certainly don’t have it out for aspiring writers. (Rejecting submissions is hands down the worst part of my job.) On the contrary, I’m in this because I want more than anything to be bowled over, moved, provoked; I want to feel, as Dickson described it, “as if the top of my head were taken off.” And I don’t much care whether it’s by a previously unpublished writer or a Pulitzer-winning author. I just want to discover and publish works that might one day reach through time and space to touch the soul of another human being. If I’d understood that earlier in my writing life, I might have felt a little more sympathy for all the overworked editors and publishers.

Please fill in the blank: I have read __ of the Harry Potter books. One.

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, NC—Pre-registration for the North Carolina Writers' Network 2013 Fall Conference ends Friday, November 8. Which means there's only one week left to sign up for North Carolina's largest and most inclusive writing conference at the discounted rate.

The deadline to pre-register is Friday, November 8, at 5:00 pm by phone or mail; midnight if registering online. Attendees who register prior to the conference can save up to 50 percent. And signing up now can help ensure registrants land spots in classes before they close.

The Fall Conference attracts hundreds of writers from around the country and provides a weekend full of activities that include a luncheon, an annual banquet, readings, workshop tracks in several genres, open mic sessions, and an exhibit hall packed with literary organizations, presses, and publishers. Conference faculty includes professional writers from North Carolina and beyond.

Wilmington resident Clyde Edgerton will give the Keynote Address. Edgerton, a North Carolina native, is the author of five New York Times Notable Books and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Master Classes will be led by Philip Gerard (Creative Nonfiction), Rebecca Lee (Fiction), and Peter Makuck (Poetry).

Because publishing is an evolving business offering more opportunities for authors than ever before, several workshops are designed to help writers navigate this rapidly shifting landscape. Ellyn Bache, author of Safe Passage (made into a 1995 movie starring Susan Sarandon), will lead a workshop titled “Presses and Agents and E-Books, Oh My: 40 Years in the Book Biz.” Jen McConnel will lead a workshop on “The Ins & Outs of Indie Publishing,” and Bridgette A. Lacy will help writers learn how to market their books with “From Book to Buzz.”

Wilmington-based Ecotone literary magazine and Lookout Books will lead a panel on Saturday morning titled “How to Work with a Publisher (So They Want to Work with You)”. Lookout Books publisher Emily Louise Smith will also sit on the Sunday panel, “Agents and Editors,” along with literary agents Michelle Brower of Folio Literary Management and Paul Lucas of Janklow & Nesbit Associates, as well as Christine Norris of Press 53. These editors and agents will participate in manuscript and marketing marts, and the critique service, where registrants can have their manuscripts evaluated by professionals. The 2013 Fall Conference offers coastal residents their best chance this year to meet with literary agents and editors, ask questions, and pitch their manuscripts.

The final judge will be award-winning author, arts journalist, and creative writing instructor Shawna Kenney. Her memoir I Was a Teenage Dominatrix(Last Gasp) enjoys international translation and is in development as a television series with the FX network. She also co-authored Imposters (Mark Batty Publisher), a coffee-table book about celebrity impersonators. Her work has appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Bust, Juxtapoz, Veg News, AP, Ms., Mix Mag, Transworld Skateboarding, the Baltimore Sun and the Florida Review, among others.

Kenney’s personal essays appear in numerous anthologies. She received a BA in Communications from American University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She teaches creative writing in private workshops and for the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.

The Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition encourages the creation of lasting nonfiction work that is outside the realm of conventional journalism and has relevance to North Carolinians. Subjects may include traditional categories such as reviews, travel articles, profiles or interviews, place/history pieces, or culture criticism. The first-, second-, and third-place winners will receive $300, $200, and $100 respectively. The winning entry will be considered for publication by Southern Cultures magazine.

Poet, novelist, and former Davidson College professor Anthony S. Abbott won top honors in the 2012 Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition for his essay “The White Dress.”

The 2013 guidelines are as follows:

Eligibility and GuidelinesPostmark deadline: January 17

The competition is open to any writer who is a legal resident of North Carolina or a member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network.

The postmark deadline in January 17, 2013.

The entry fee is $10 for NCWN members, $12 for nonmembers.

Entries can be submitted in one of two ways:

Send two printed copies through the U.S. Postal Service (see guidelines and address below), along with a check for the appropriate fee, made payable to the North Carolina Writers' Network.

Writers from across the state and beyond can soon submit their work to one or more of the four contests sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network.

The Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition will accept submissions between November 15 and January 17; all entries must be postmarked by January 17. The Rose Post contest encourages the creation of lasting nonfiction work that is outside the realm of conventional journalism and has relevance to North Carolinians. Subjects may include traditional categories, such as reviews, travel articles, profiles, or interviews; place/history pieces; or culture criticism. The Final Judge is Shawna Kenney, author of the award-winning memoir, I Was a Teenage Dominatrix. The first-, second-, and third-place entries will receive recognition and a cash prize, and the winning entry will be considered for publication by Southern Culturesmagazine.

The submission period for The Doris Betts Fiction Prize runs from January 1 to February 15. All entries must be postmarked by February 15. The Betts Prize awards the first-prize winner $250 and publication in the North Carolina Literary Review. The competition is open to any writer who is a legal resident of North Carolina or a member of the Network. North Carolina Literary Review subscribers with North Carolina connections (lives or has lived in North Carolina) are also eligible.

The Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition accepts one-poem submissions between January 15 and its March 1 postmark deadline. The contest awards the winner $200, publication in storySouth, and an invitation to read his or her poetry at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Founders Day activities. This competition is open to any writer who is a legal resident of North Carolina or a member of the Network.

Hats Off! to Rebecca McClanahan whose "Adopt a Bench," first published in The Sun, received a "Notable" citation in the newest Best American Essays and "Special Mention" in the Pushcart Prize anthology. A revised edition of her multi-genre craft book Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively, will be released in late November.

Hats Off! to Joan Leotta whose three poems on Thanksgiving appear in the November issue of Righter Publications. Also, her poem "Bloom" has been accepted by When Women Waken and will appear in their next issue.

Next Tuesday, January 17 is the postmark deadline for 2012 Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition, sponsored by the North Carolina Writers' Network and coordinated by the creative writing program at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. And the best part is, the upcoming holiday weekend means a whole extra day to get your manuscript submission-ready!

The Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition encourages the creation of lasting nonfiction work that is outside the realm of conventional journalism and has relevance to North Carolinians. Subjects may include traditional categories such as reviews, travel articles, profiles or interviews, place/history pieces, or culture criticism. The first-, second-, and third-place winners will receive $300, $200, and $100 respectively. The winning entry will be considered for publication by Southern Cultures magazine.

Award-winning author Anne Clinard Barnhill will be the final judge. Barnhill has signed a two-book deal with St. Martin's Press, and her debut novel, At the Mercy of the Queen, was published this month. Her poetry chapbook, Coal, Baby, will also appear in early 2012 from Finishing Line Press.

She is the author of two books: What You Long For(Main Street Rag, 2009—short-story collection) and At Home in the Land of Oz: Autism, My Sister, and Me(Jessica Kingsley, 2007—memoir). Her articles and short stories have appeared in a variety of newspapers, literary anthologies, and magazines. Her work has won various awards and grants. Barnhill holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UNC Wilmington. She is married to Frank Barnhill, and they have three grown sons and three very cute grandchildren.

Submissions for this year’s contest must be postmarked by Tuesday, January 17, and mailed to:

The North Carolina Writers’ Network is now accepting submissions for its annual Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition, coordinated by the creative writing program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Award-winning author Anne Clinard Barnhill will be the final judge. Barnhill has signed a two-book deal with St. Martin's Press, and her debut novel, At the Mercy of the Queen, will appear in early 2012. Her poetry chapbook, Coal, Baby, will also appear in early 2012 from Finishing Line Press.

She is the author of two books: What You Long For(Main Street Rag, 2009—short-story collection) and At Home in the Land of Oz: Autism, My Sister, and Me(Jessica Kingsley, 2007—memoir). Her articles and short stories have appeared in a variety of newspapers, literary anthologies, and magazines. Her work has won various awards and grants. Barnhill holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UNC Wilmington. She is married to Frank Barnhill, and they have three grown sons and three very cute grandchildren.

The Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition encourages the creation of lasting nonfiction work that is outside the realm of conventional journalism and has relevance to North Carolinians. Subjects may include traditional categories such as reviews, travel articles, profiles or interviews, place/history pieces, or culture criticism. The first-, second-, and third-place winners will receive $300, $200, and $100 respectively. The winning entry will be considered for publication by Southern Cultures magazine.

Submissions for this year’s contest must be postmarked by Tuesday, January 17, and mailed to:

"An unflinching picaresque of finding love and sanity in a place that was anything but The Land of the Morning Calm.” —Kirkus Reviews

“The book will appeal to anyone interested in the beginning of the Korean conflict, has an interest in this period of Asian history, or simply likes a good story. Highly recommended.”—Terry Shoptaugh, Military Writers Society

One June day at the mid-point of the twentieth century, the uneasy peace that had settled over the "Land of the Morning Calm" was shattered by an act of aggression. Not far away, on the "Islands of the Rising Sun," the first tremors of conflict were felt. In reaction to the vague threat, an Army of occupation from a previous war was ordered into action, forever altering the lives of those called upon to respond. This novel is a gripping account of the early stages of the Korean War, candidly presented without pretense or heroic embellishment. Also related in stark detail are the sordid aspects of garrison duty in Japan, graphically expressed with little sentimentality. The story features a distinctive cast of military and civilian characters, whose domain extends from the streets of Yokohama, to the halls of the Dai Ichi Building, to the treacherous landscape of Korea.

Emmett E. Slake served in the United States Army for thirty years and is a veteran of the Korean War and the Vietnam War. He was stationed overseas for eighteen years. Eleven years in the Far East (Japan/Korea/Laos/Vietnam/Okinawa) and seven years in Europe (Germany). He resides in Cary, North Carolina.

Kisan Upadhaya was born in Assam, India, in 1966. He was separated from his sister, mother, and father at age four and found himself starving, sick and begging for food on the streets of Kathmandu, Nepal. Soon the bitter cold of winter got the best of him from having to work for food and he became very ill and near death. He was taken to the hospital, where he spent almost six months recovering and was discharged to the Christian home called Mendies Haven Children’s Home where he grew up. He came to the U.S. in 1987 to study and is now working in Durham, North Carolina, where he lives with his wife and two children. In the intervening years he tried to search for his biological family and failed. However, 42 year later he was reunited on live TV with his mother and dear sister in August 2011.

Acclaimed author Martin Clark, who serves as a circuit court judge when he is not writing best-selling novels, will now also judge the North Carolina Writers’ Network’s 2011 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize.

The Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize honors internationally celebrated North Carolina novelist Thomas Wolfe. The winner receives $1,000 and possible publication in the Thomas Wolfe Review. Submissions for the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize are accepted from December 1 until the postmark deadline of January 30.

Martin Clark is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Davidson College and a 1984 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law. In 1992 he was appointed as a juvenile and domestic relations judge for the Twenty-first Judicial Circuit and currently serves as a circuit court judge for the Virginia counties of Patrick and Henry and the city of Martinsville, Virginia.

His first novel, The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living, was a New York Times Notable Book for the year 2000 and a Book –of-the-Month Club selection. His second novel, Plain Heathen Mischief, appeared on both Amazon’s and Barnes and Noble’s Top 100 list for 2004. His third book, The Legal Limit (2008), was praised by reviewers as “the new standard by which legal fiction should be judged” and “the best courtroom story ever.” He lives in Stuart, Virginia, with his wife Deana.

Entries for the 2011 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize must be no more than 12 double-spaced pages, and must be postmarked by January 30, 2011. Checks must be made payable to the North Carolina Writers’ Network. Submissions should be mailed to –

The competition is open to all writers without regard to geographical region or previous publication.

Submit two copies of an unpublished fiction manuscript not to exceed 12 double-spaced pages.

Names should not appear on manuscripts but on separate cover sheet along with address, phone number, e-mail address, word count, and manuscript title.

An entry fee must accompany the manuscript: $15 NCWN for members, $25 for nonmembers. You may pay the member entry fee if you join the NCWN with your submission. Checks should be made payable to the North Carolina Writers’ Network.

In Slightly Cracked, Sugar Babe Beanblossom and best pal, Daisy Marie Hazelhurst, have been buddies since they were born two weeks to the day apart. Living near each other, they share happy and sad memories, outrageous antics and giggles, marital and health glitches. The only thing that threatens their lifelong friendship is the Old Dickeywood subdivision goose controversy.

When Daisy takes a nasty spill on her bike, Sugar Babe races to her side. After two trips to the ER, Daisy is diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome and tests reveal an even more sinister affliction. As Daisy weakens, Sugar Babe embraces the realization that friends must encourage and protect one another through difficult circumstances, and …

“Driving Miss Daisy” takes on a whole new meaning.

Susan Whitfield is a native of North Carolina, where she sets her Logan Hunter Mysteries. Genesis Beach is set along the Crystal Coast, Just North of Luck, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Hell Swamp along Black River in Pender County, and Sin Creek in Wilmington. Whitfield collected family recipes from mystery writers across the country for Killer Recipes, a real cookbook with mysterious names. Proceeds go to The American Cancer Society. Her website is www.susanwhitfieldonline.com has more information including video trailers and event locations. Whitfield interviews other writers at www.susanwhitfield.blogspot.com. She is currently working on the fifth Logan Hunter Mystery.

The North Carolina Writers’ Network is now accepting submissions for its annual Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition, coordinated by the creative writing program at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

Memoirist Jay Varner will be the final judge of the 2011 Rose Post contest. Varner, author of Nothing Left to Burn, graduated from UNC Wilmington with an MFA in creative nonfiction. While in graduate school he taught creative writing and literature courses. He also served as nonfiction editor and eventually managing editor of Ecotone: Reimagining Place. He now lives with his wife near Charlottesville, Virginia, where he teaches adult and high school students and is at work on a novel. His website is www.jayvarner.com

The Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition encourages the creation of lasting nonfiction work that is outside the realm of conventional journalism and has relevance to North Carolinians. Subjects may include traditional categories such as reviews, travel articles, profiles or interviews, place/history pieces, or culture criticism. The first-, second-, and third-place winners will receive $300, $200, and $100 respectively. The winning entry will be considered for publication by Southern Cultures magazine.

Submissions for this year’s contest must be postmarked by Wednesday, January 5, and mailed to:

The competition is open to any writer who is a legal resident of North Carolina or a member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network.

Submit two copies of an original and previously unpublished manuscript of no more than 2,000 words, typed (12-point font) and double-spaced.

Names should not appear on manuscripts but on separate cover sheet along with address, phone number, e-mail address, word count, and manuscript title.

An entry fee must accompany the manuscript. Multiple submissions accepted, one manuscript per entry fee: $10 for NCWN members, $12 for nonmembers. You may pay member entry fee if you join the NCWN with your submission. Checks should be made payable to the North Carolina Writers’ Network.

Entries will not be returned. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope for list of winners.

A narrative in eight parts, Berkeley Prelude is the story of two men: Mark Smith-Soto and Mark Smith-Soto. With nimble humor and unﬂinching gaze, an older Smith-Soto traces himself through the relationships and experiences of his younger, yet-unformed self. The backdrop is the fully-matured chaos of 1970s Berkeley, California, where street preachers may work for the FBI, machete-wielding night-stalkers are a fact of life, and a man with no face sees what no one else can. In the end, Berkeley Prelude cautions that when you look back, the face you don’t recognize might be your own.

Mark Smith-Soto is professor of Spanish and editor of International Poetry Review at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Born in his father's hometown, Washington, D.C., and reared in his mother's native country, Costa Rica, he contributes new tonalities, by turns ironic, lyrical, or passionate, to the growing chorus of U.S. Latino poetry. His poems have appeared in Antioch Review, Kenyon Review, Literary Review, Louisville Review, Nimrod, Poetry East, Quarterly West, Rosebud, Southern Poetry Review, The Sun, and numerous other magazines. Award a 2005 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in creative writing, he has published three prize-winning chapbooks and two full-length poetry collections, Our Lives are Rivers (University Press of Florida, 2003), and Any Second Now (Main Street Rag Publishing Co., 2006). His translation of the selected poetry of Costa Rican writer Ana Istarú, Fever Season, was published in 2010 by Unicorn Press.

The writing contests sponsored by the North Carolina Writers’ Network will have new submission deadlines this year and in years to come.

The Rose Post Creative Nonfiction Competition will accept submissions between November 15 and January 5; all entries must be postmarked by January 5. The Rose Post contest encourages the creation of lasting nonfiction work that is outside the realm of conventional journalism and has relevance to North Carolinians. Subjects may include traditional categories, such as reviews, travel articles, profiles, or interviews; place/history pieces; or culture criticism. The first-, second-, and third-place winners will receive $300, $200, and $100 respectively. The winning entry will be considered for publication by Southern Cultures magazine.

The Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize will accept submissions between December 1 and the postmark deadline of January 30. This contest honors internationally celebrated North Carolina novelist Thomas Wolfe. The winner receives $1,000 and possible publication in the Thomas Wolfe Review.

The Doris Betts Fiction Prize’s submission period runs from January 1 to February 15. All entries must be postmarked by February 15. The Betts Prize awards the first-prize winner $250 and publication in the North Carolina Literary Review. The competition is open to any writer who is a legal resident of North Carolina or a member of the Network. North Carolina Literary Review subscribers with North Carolina connections (lives or has lived in NC) are also eligible.

The Randall Jarrell Poetry Competition accepts one-poem submissions between January 15 and its March 1 postmark deadline. The contest awards the winner $200, publication in the Crucible literary journal, and an invitation to read his or her poetry at UNC Greensboro’s Founders Day activities. This competition is open to any writer who is a legal resident of North Carolina or a member of the Network.

More information, including full submission guidelines, can be found at www.ncwriters.org.

Within this book is help for those with chronic pain who do not have information on drug-free alternatives. Often chronic pain sufferers search haphazardly for too long on their own to find the help they need.

While touching on a variety of methods, Beat Chronic Pain, An Insider’s Guide is intentionally brief, with short chapters, as the capacity to concentrate and retain information is greatly reduced in those with pain.

The “Introduction” offers reasons why chronic pain is not always recognized, described, and treated. Chapters have personal examples of the author finding a tool, a method, and using it to rebuild her life. These tools can be used by anyone with chronic pain to improve chances of surviving the stress of constant pain, and reclaiming one’s life. Included are suggested readings and resource contacts.

Please share this information with anyone you know who may be interested in fighting chronic pain by means other than drugs. This is also an excellent resource for primary caregivers, and those who live with, or interact regularly with chronic pain sufferers.

Maren welcomes email comments and/or reviews online.

Since 1987, due to a spinal cord tumor and surgery, Maren O. Mitchell has had chronic pain, termed “central pain.” For years, through trial and error, she searched for ways to live a sane and full life again. For over twenty years now, without relying on drugs, she has been accomplishing her goal.

One of the methods Maren found for coping has been writing. Her poetry has appeared in Southern Humanities Review, The Classical Outlook, The Journal of Kentucky Studies, Appalachian Journal, Red Clay Reader, Volume 4, The Richmond Broom, The Arts Journal, and the anthologies Sunrise from Blue Thunder, Echoes Across the Blue Ridge, and Nurturing Paws.

Poems are archived in online journals Wild Goose Poetry Review and Pirene’s Fountain, and forthcoming in The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume V: Georgia, Pirene’s Fountain, and Wild Goose Poetry Review. Her poem “Not the Poem” won this year’s 1st Place Award for Excellence in Poetry from the Georgia Poetry Society.

Maren reads at several different poetry venues each month. She has taught poetry at Blue Ridge Community College, Flat Rock, NC, and catalogued at the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. Another way of dealing with her pain is through the Japanese art of paper folding. By teaching, she shares her knowledge of origami.

A native of North Carolina, in her childhood she lived in Bordeaux, France, and Kaiserslautern, Germany. After moving throughout the southeast U.S., Maren now lives with her husband and two cats in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia on the edge of a national forest.

The Narratives is a collection of short introspective essays written by an average guy in an effort to better understand himself, his life, and his relationship with the world around him while traveling the road of self-discovery.

Let’s Have Lunch celebrates the twenty-year journey that a group of clergy and their churches took in order to confront the toxic presence of racism in the community of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It is a story of hope that begins with three people having lunch in 1992. It is the story of the power of community to overcome divisions. It is a story of ordinary people tryng to understand and act against the force of racism. It is the story of the creative ways that the people of six churches addressed the issue of race. It is the story of how that effort expanded to include the inter-faith community. It is an invitation to the readers to refuse to be defeated by the complex issue of racism. It is an invitation to have lunch and be open to the unexpected and inspiring things that can happen.

Steve spent thirty-eight years in the pastoral ministry interpreting the Gospel to lay people who experience the tension of division in their world. For twenty-three years, he combined ministry with his middle-class congregation with monthly involvement in counseling the poor in his city. He helped found the Presbyterian Inter-RacialDialogue that in November, 2012 celebrated twenty years working with six Presbyterian churches, three predominantly black and three predominantly white, building community that breaks down the barriers of racism. He also helped establish a Hispanic ministry in Winston-Salem. His church has participated in regular activities with the Jewish community. Five times the church shared in an interfaith, interracial Habitat build that included Christians, Jews, and Muslims; Caucasians, Blacks, and Hispanics. He has been a featured speaker at Moravian, Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, and Presbyterian convocations.

The author published Experiencing the Psalms with Smyth & Helwys that in 2000, received the Jim Angell award from the Presbyterian Writer’s Guild for the best first book published by a Presbyterian in that year. He has published dozens of articles in various religious journals, three devotional books based on the lectionary, and a commentary on Matthew, Good News for a Fractured Society. He has coauthored two plays exploring racism, one of which has been performed several times.

Since retirement in 2006, he has focused on developing resources to assist in the care of clergy. These include two CDs, A Deep Well for the Pastor and Laughter From the Well. The latter builds on his interest in performing standup comedy. He has also led webinars on both writing and the care of clergy and edits the Newsletter for the Presbytery Pastoral Care Network, www.pastoralcarenetwork.org. He blogs regularly on various aspects of the support of clergy. His website is www.smccutchan.com.

From the age of seven Ryan Richmond dreamed about going to Space! Now Ryan Richmond has $3 billion to play with, he is in his forties; and still wants to go to space. His only enemy; the US Government who doesn’t have its own space program—and wants his!

He sold his first company at 19 and employed the remnants of the Russian Space Program; a couple of the best Russian space brains in the world!

Ryan founded, and sold two more companies in his twenties, and then hired most of the European Space Authority!

In his thirties he invested over $100 million into Internet Start-ups and Google, netting Billions. Then he waited until NASA’s Shuttle Program came to a sad end and employed the best brains in the U.S. Space Program.

Now he is in his forties, still wants to go to space—the only problem is that The U.S. government doesn’t have a current space program of their own—and wants his!

A good science learning tool for Middle/High students as the scientific terminology in the story is, correct, accurate, factual and educating. Paperback version out in December—Book II out for Christmas—Book III out for summer 2013.

If you love books (even if only the ones you yourself have written), you need to be aware of a recent market trend that could have a far-reaching effect on readers and writers.

This fall, some of the country’s largest retailers—notably Wal-Mart, Target, and Amazon.com—have begun pricing new and often best-selling hardcover books as low as $8 or $9, 50%–60% lower than the publishers’ list price. This means that those retailers are often selling books for less than what they bought them for from the publishers. They are, in effect, losing money on each book sold. It seems like a great deal for readers, doesn’t it? Not when you think about its long-term effects.

These pricing practices could create a climate in the book business in which new and even established authors suffer because of the irresponsibility of retailers who have little concern for the health of bookselling and publishing, much less the literary community. They are telling readers that books aren't worth the price it costs to publish them.

Do any of us really want to live in a world where publishing a new book, in commercial terms, isn’t worth the expense? Pricing a best-selling book in the single digits devalues the work the author, editor, designer, and publisher put into that book. Such pricing will inevitably push all retail prices—and thus, publishers’ revenue—down. Facing reduced revenues, many small presses, those who often serve as the discoverers of new and exciting authors, will not be able to survive. Larger publishing houses will be much less willing to take risks on authors without a proven track record on the best-seller lists (including the authors who might write tomorrow’s best sellers).

New and emerging authors—even established authors with solid but not spectacular sales histories—will find fewer and fewer venues available for their work. Those venues they do find will be less able to find and build an audience for the work of these writers.

The retailers engaging in this devaluing are using books as nothing more than loss leaders: incentives for consumers to enter their stores or Web sites, where they will be encouraged to purchase more expensive items. They are discounting not only the economic value of books, but also the intrinsic intellectual and emotional value of what books provide. They are treating books merely as the prize in the Happy Meal box.

With the holiday gift-giving season approaching, we urge everyone to be aware of the disregard in which some retailers hold the printed word, and to consider this and the possible consequences when you do your shopping.

Doris Betts Fiction Prize

Postmark Deadline: February 1 (annual)

The North Carolina Literary Review Fiction Editor Liza Wieland is now accepting submissions for the 2010 Doris Betts Fiction Prize competition, sponsored by the North Carolina Writers Network and the North Carolina Literary Review. Deadline February 1. First prize is $250. The winning story and select finalists will be published inNCLR

Please note: NCLR’s website has recently been updated, so the link to the “submit it online” section that was previously posted on the North Carolina Writers Network website and sent out with early notices has changed. The new link is: http://www.nclr.ecu.edu/submissions/submit-online.html

Or, you can just go to NCLR’s home page, www.nclr.ecu.edu, and click on submissions, then the submit tab.

If you have difficulty navigating our new electronic submission process, be assured, we will respond to your emailed questions, and if you mail your submission fee check in, postmarked by Feb. 1, your story will be considered in the competition.

Eligibility & Guidelines

The competition is open to any writer who is a legal resident of North Carolina or a member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network. North Carolina Literary Review subscribers with North Carolina connections (lives or has lived in NC) are also eligible.

The competition is for short stories up to 6,000 words. One entry per writer. No novel excerpts.

In the hour before eagerly starting a new chapter in his life, Mark Kinney’s perspective was abruptly altered forever. In the wake of the tragic and untimely passing of his fiancée, he struggles to cope with both his loss and an impending moral dilemma, while a dark presence casts a sinister shadow over his town. When he is confronted with the realization that he is a conduit for the evil that has been brought forth, his search for answers and a resolution begins. As he is drawn down into the depths of his own misery, he comes face to face with what lurks within, and recognizes that he alone must stop the horrific chain of events before time runs out.

Vince Guaglione is a guy who asks lots of questions, not only of himself but of his society and the world around him. Although he claims he's found no real answers, that hasn't stopped him in his quest to gain perspective on a little something we call life. When he's not at his real job, you can find him sucking down venti-sized coffees at a brisk pace his local Starbucks, thinking up new writing projects, or pondering his mystery questions of life. Originally from Philadelphia PA, Vince now resides in Raleigh NC. Vince is currently working on marketing his most recent works, "Chasing Angels", and "Eva". He is also gathering ideas for the next installment in The Narratives series as well as finalizing concepts for additional fictional short stories.

“Not only is Terry Kennedy’s New River Breakdown a stellar volume of prose poems, but it’s also a canny primer on that genre—a many-headed, oft-misunderstood hybrid. His querulous, introspective speaker resists his own breakdown by breaking down his universe into parcels of incremental wonder in which ‘fear and love [are] one and the same.’ The result is poem after poem of fabulous imagery and infinite possibility. We recognize in these tableaux the worlds we inhabit and long for at once—articulated so memorably in ‘What Love Comes To’: ‘One small thing I still love about you is how little of you I actually know . . . ’ Kennedy expertly explores the prose poem’s accommodating elasticity, beautifully marrying the discursive brunt of the best prose and the impressionistic language verse thrives on.” —Joseph Bathanti, Poet Laureate of North Carolina

“Beautiful and moving, Terry Kennedy’s second poetry collection describes an elusive and haunting narrative of loss, love, and recovery. His prose poems bring us so close to the narrator that we share in our bones his predicament of wanting to go forward while fearing what may be ahead. ‘It’s neither the end nor the beginning of all we hope for,’ he discovers. Lyricism and considered thought are here, and lines that strike sparks from these passionate poems.” —Kelly Cherry, author of The Life and Death of Poetry

“The bright, swiftly kinetic surfaces of Terry Kennedy’s poems whisper as they pass a wistful but passionate love story. He has an Impressionist’s purpose and deftness of touch. I think of Renoir, of the etudes of Debussy. Yet his strophes stand firmly on their ground and are as strong as the seasons they portray. His every image bears the nuances of a remembrance. New River Breakdown is a rare treasure.” —Fred Chappell, winner of the Bollingen Prize for Poetry, author of Ancestors and Others

Terry L. Kennedy is the author of the limited edition chapbook Until the Clouds Shatter the Light That Plates Our Lives, selected by Thomas Lux for Jeanne Duval Editions of Atlanta, GA. His work appears in numerous literary journals and magazines including Cave Wall, from the Fishouse, Southern Review, and Waccamaw, and has been honored with a Randall Jarrell Fellowship as well as fellowships to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. He currently serves as the Associate Director of Graduate Program in Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and is Editor of the online journal storySouth.

The year: 1970. Rural North Carolina. At his dying mother's request, Arlis Morrow, a white newspaper reporter, returns to his small, isolated hometown to seek a black man he had known thirty years earlier as a five-year-old playmate and not seen since. With his mother's motivation strangely veiled, Arlis begins seeking clues to the man's whereabouts, encountering subtle resistance from both black and white townspeople—a courtly undertaker, a glad-handing politician, a secretively obsessed Pentecostalist, a sheriff with a shrouded past. Despite their resistance, Arlis gradually unearths truths, mixed with ancient racial ambiguities, that lead him to disturbing discoveries about his family and his old friend and propel him into a final tragic confrontation.

The Road to Goshen Shoals is more than a tale of quest and confrontation. It is a series of conversations about the powerful and sometimes equivocal impact of the civil rights movement in the South—conversations between and among the region's most important constituents, its ordinary (and sometimes extraordinary) people.

Paul W. Valentine was born and raised in North Carolina and is a retired reporter for The Washington Post where he covered police, courts, prisons, law enforcement policy, and extremist politics. He is the author of two other novels, Crisscross and Dark Epiphany (also titled Crime Scene at "O" Street in its original hardback edition). He lives with his wife, Elizabeth, in Baltimore, Maryland, where he plays the autoharp and enjoys his grandchildren.

"Annie Price is a reporter stuck in a dead-end job at a dying Houston newspaper. When she decides to profile an ambitious West Texas politician, it's as much out of boredom as ambition. But that one story sucks Annie into a web of intrigue and danger: Murder, fraud and the secessionist movement that are as big and bizarre as Texas itself. Veteran journalist Nancy Stancill has produced a chilling, fast-paced and powerful mystery in Saving Texas. This is a great read." —Jon Talton, author of the David Mapstone mysteries, the Cincinnati Casebooks, and the thriller Deadline Man

Houston reporter Annie Price is looking for a career-defining story when she profiles Tom Marr. the state's first secessionist candidate for governor. But the big Texas story comes with more than she bargains for—a corrupt college president, a dangerous ex-CIA agent, and a beautiful, deadly Peruvian assassin. Before long, Annie must grapple with two murders, political shenanigans, and a love triangle that will test the limits of her ethics and her heart. Will she be able to get the story before her struggling newspaper implodes or her ruthless enemies get her? Author Nancy Stancill, formerly a reporter for the Houston Chronicle for fifteen years, goes behind the headlines and deep into the gritty heart of journalism and politics in today's Texas.

Nancy Stancill was a journalist for more than thirty years, including fifteen years as an award-winning reporter for the Houston Chronicle. Her experiences as an investigative reporter in Texas inspired this work of fiction. She’s a native of Johnson City, TN, grew up in Virginia, and received a BA in journalism from UNC Chapel Hill. She worked for the Charlotte Observer for fifteen years before moving to London with her husband, a banker, in 2009. She wrote Saving Texas in London. She and her husband returned to Charlotte in late 2012.

"This compulsively page-turning true crime narrative has it all: smart prose, a now-obscure unsolved murder that was notorious at the time, and an investigative journalist trying to pick up the trail. Many readers will be convinced that his dogged investigation has at last uncovered the truth." —Publishers Weekly, "Pick of the Week"/starred review

Madison County in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina is a place of ear-popping drives and breathtaking views.

It is also where federal antipoverty worker Nancy Dean Morgan was found naked, hogtied, and strangled in the backseat of her car in June 1970.

An inept investigation involving local, state, and federal law-enforcement agencies failed to find a clear explanation of the motive or events of her murder. The case was left unsolved. Years later, after most of the material evidence had been lost or mishandled, one of Nancy’s fellow VISTA workers—the last person known to have seen her alive—became the prime suspect, based on the testimony of one of the town’s most notorious resident criminals. Did he kill Nancy, or was he another victim of the corrupt local political machine and its adherence to “mountain justice”?

Met Her on the Mountain: A Forty-Year Quest to Solve the Appalachian Cold-Case Murder of Nancy Morgan is a tangled tale of rural noir. Author Mark Pinsky was profoundly struck by Nancy’s story as a college student in North Carolina in 1970. Here, Pinsky presents the evolution of his investigation and also delves into the brutal history of Madison County, the site of a Civil War massacre that earned it the sobriquet “Bloody Madison.” Met Her on the Mountain is a stirring mix of true crime, North Carolina political history, and one man’s devotion to finding the truth.

A former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times and Orlando Sentinel, Mark I. Pinsky holds degrees from Duke University and Columbia University. As an investigative journalist specializing in capital murder cases around the Southeast, he has written for the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. Though this is his first true-crime work, he has previously published four religion books.

Coal River Road exposes the impact that a rapidly fading oral history can have on one’s perception of cultural identity. The poet’s connection to the West Virginia mountains is as ephemeral as her connection to hearth and family, simultaneously formative and destructive, yet impossible to resist. These poems are about heritage learned and loved and lost, the quest to retrieve one’s self in the ordinary domestic day, and the ferocity of familial relationships that can never quite be fulfilled.

Kathy Ackerman has lived in the Carolinas since 1984. Coal River Road is her first full-length book of poems. She has published three chapbooks: The Time It Takes (Finishing Line Press); Crossbones and Princess Lace (NCWN Mary Belle Campbell Poetry Chapbook Award); and Knock Wood (Main Street Rag) as well as a critical biography of North Carolina proletarian novelist Olive Tilford Dargan, The Heart of Revolution (University of Tennessee Press). She is Dean of Arts and Sciences and Writer-in-Residence at Isothermal Community College in Spindale, NC, and resides in Tryon.

"Jessie Carty’s MORPH is a coming-of-age collection for all the nerdy girls and boys who were 'angry at still being unseen-unrealized-misinterpreted-mispronounced,' who 'needed a fresh / set of letters, a new narrative' to survive the torment of adolescence. These poems explore the way gender is assigned in childhood, and they pay homage to comic book heroes and heroines, to Buffy and the vampires, to movies like Dune and Labyrinth, to sci-fi and fantasy, all vehicles of power and revenge. The speaker of these poems understands that language, math, and science are the ways forward to transformations, to taking on the Truth or Dare of any given life."—Sandy Longhorn, author of Blood Almanac

In Jessie Carty’s most definitive collection of poetry yet, the poet explores identity through a playful juxtaposition of memory and fantasy. Says Collin Kelley, "The poems in MORPH are fragmented, delicate, and searing as Jessie Carty examines the often intense need for personal transformation. If we could become someone—or something—else, would it make our lot in life better or worse?"

Jessie Carty is the author of Paper House, At the A & P Meridiem, The Wait of Atom, Fat Girl, and An Amateur Marriage. She received her MFA from Queens University of Charlotte.

Hats Off! to Erika Hoffman who received the good news that Page & Spine would like to publish her mystery entitled "Chew On That!" Erika often finds homes for her personal essays, so she is particularly excited to discover a paying venue for her fiction.

Hats Off! to Erika Hoffman whose essay “Empty the Vacuum Cleaner” has been accepted and will be published in the January 2014 issue of Screamin’ Mamas print magazine and e-zine. Her pieces also appeared in the magazine’s November and December editions.

Hats Off! to Cynthia Schaub, the daughter and spouse of a veteran, who has two poems, "By the Dumpster" and "Italian Poppies," included in the Touring Theatre of North Carolina production Deployed. Performances on November 15 and 16 at 8:00 pm.

Hats Off! to Walter Bennett, whose novel, Leaving Tuscaloosa, was short-listed for the First Annual Crook's Corner Book Prize. The winner will be announced Monday, January 6, at a special event in Chapel Hill.

Hats Off! to Debra Madaris Efird whose article entitled "Address Adolescent Anger" appears in the Nov/Dec 2013 issue of ASCA School Counselor, the magazine of the American School Counselor Association.

Hats Off! to Claudette Cohen who received an $800 Regional Artist Project Grant from the Arts Council of Wilmington & New Hanover County to "attend a literary conference and to obtain professional critical review of a manuscript."

Hats Off! to Erika Hoffman who has two stories that have been selected as finalists for Chicken Soup for the Soul’s edition Multitasking Mom’s Survival Guide. One is called “BUSY!” and the other is titled “Frenzied.” Although Erika’s stories have been featured in ten other editions of this anthology, this is the first time two of her stories could wind up in the same book.

Hats Off! to Karen Paul Holmes who has had her first poetry collection, Untying The Knot, accepted by Kelsay Books out of California for a September 2014 release. Two of the poems appear in Skive Magazine: "Matilda Waltzing," about Holmes' mother leaving Australia after World War II and settling in the U.S. with her Yankee sailor, and "Reality Show: Save This Marriage." Click on the links to hear Holmes reading her poems.

Hats Off! to David E. Poston who has two poems in Bearers of Distance, an anthology of poems by runners, forthcoming from Eastern Point Lit House & Press. Half of all profits from the anthology will benefit The One Fund for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. One of the poems, “The Kiss,” was featured in a review on WBUR, Boston’s NPR station.

Hats Off! to Erika Hoffman who has had two nonfiction stories accepted by ScreaminMamas magazine. “ A Long Year of Waiting” appears in the November 2013 edition, and “A Christmas Rule” will appear in the December 2013 issue.

Hats Off! to Bill Everett, who has signed a contract with Wipf and Stock Publishers for publication of a book on woodworking and spirituality tentatively entitled Sawdust and Soul. Bill, a retired ethicist and woodworker, is writing this book with John Degruchy, a retired theologian and woodworker in South Africa, with whom he has worked on many projects over the past fifteen years.

Hats Off! to Karen Cecil Smith whose novel, Pillow of Thorns, based on the 1850 Fayetteville murder trial of Ann K. Simpson, was honored on October 19 by The North Carolina Society of Historians with a Clark Cox Historical Fiction Award. For more information, please visit my website: www.karencecilsmith.com.

Hats Off! to Tamra Wilson whose short story, “The Crazy House,” took First Prize in the 10th annual Adult Literary Competition sponsored by the Arts Council of York County, SC. Meanwhile, her story, “Fit to Kill,” appears in the fall issue of The Main Street Rag.

Marjorie Hudson’s story “Self-Portrait in Camouflage” is included in the anthology What Doesn’t Kill You, now available from Press 53, and her story “Home” is included in the anthology,Topograph: New Writing from the Carolinas and the Landscape Beyond, from Novello Festival Press. Hudson is one of five Novello Literary Award finalists whose work is highlighted in the anthology, which explores sense of place in new writing from the South.

Hats Off! to Alan Michael Parker, who not only was named as the new Douglas C. Houchens Professor at Davidson, but also won the 2012 North Carolina Book Award (Poetry) for his collection, Long Division.

Hats Off! to Maureen A. Sherbondy of Raleigh, who was awarded the Robert Watson Poetry Award by Spring Garden Press. A. Van Jordan selected her manuscript The Year of the Dead Fathers as the winner of this chapbook contest. Sherbondy is the first North Carolina poet to win this award.

Nancy Purcell's short story, "Displaced Persons", has been awarded 2nd place in the inaugural contest of the Creative Writing Corner. Her non-fiction piece, "Star Light, Star Bright", has been selected for inclusion in the anthology Patchwork Path: /Friendship Star/,due on bookshelves in late November. Nancy lives in Brevard, NC, and teaches in the adult education program at Brevard College.

Ray Morrison is one of three short story authors who will be featured in the new PRESS 53 SPOTLIGHT anthology, due for publication in January 2010. Five poets and three short story authors will be featured."

Char Solomon, author of the biography Tatiana Proskouriakoff: Interpreting theAncient Maya, has been selected to become a speaker with the North Carolina
Humanities Council Road Scholars program. Her topic, "An Introduction to the Ancient
Maya", will be included in the January 2010 Speakers Bureau listing.